SMT 9 (1) pp.

85104 Intellect Limited 2015

Studies in Musical Theatre

Volume 9 Number 1
2015 Intellect Ltd Re: Act. English language. doi: 10.1386/smt.9.1.85_1

Re: Act

Jeff Calhoun, Michael Arden, Linda Bove,

Tyrone Giordano, David J. Kurs, Steven Landau, Michael
McElroy, Bill OBrien, Gwen Stewart and Ed Waterstreet
Deaf WestTheatre

Deaf West Theatre and the

Broadway musical: Big River
and beyond

Abstract Keywords
In February 2014, UCLA hosted a reunion of the cast and production team of Deaf Deaf West
Wests Tony Award-winning production of Big River from 2004. In front of a public Big River
audience, participants in the original production reflected on the challenges and American Sign
rewards of putting together a piece of musical theatre using deaf and hearing actors Language
and incorporating new ideas about how to use American Sign Language (ASL) as Tony Awards
the basis for choreography. The panel was introduced by Raymond Knapp and Deaf theatre
moderated by Jeff Calhoun, and included Michael Arden, Linda Bove, David Kurs,
Steve Landau, Bill OBrien, Tyrone Giordano, Michael McElroy, Gwen Stewart,
and Ed Waterstreet. Performances by members of the cast were supervised by Steven
Landau and supported by singers and instrumentalists drawn from student ensem-
bles at UCLA, including the UCLA Singers (directed by Rebecca Lord) and the
Department of Ethnomusicologys Bluegrass Band (directed by Scott Linford). The
interpreters for the event were Elizabeth Greene, Robbie Sutton, Bob Loparo, and
Diana MacDougall. The event was co-sponsored by UCLA and Deaf West Theatre,
with funding provided by UCLAs Department of Musicology, Department of Music

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

(Nelson Fund), Arts Initiative Fund, School of the Arts and Architecture, Division of
Humanities, Disability Studies, and Herb Alpert School of Music. The transcription
is by Arreanna Rostosky and David Kurs.

Jeff Calhoun, moderator (JC) Director/Choreographer of Deaf Wests Big

River
Michael Arden (MA) Tom Sawyer in Deaf Wests Big River
Linda Bove (LB) ASL Master for Deaf Wests Big River
Tyrone Giordano (TG) Huck Finn in Deaf Wests Big River
David J. Kurs (DK) Artistic Director of Deaf West Theatre
Steven Landau (SL) Musical Director for Deaf Wests Big River
Michael McElroy (MM) Jim in Deaf Wests Big River
Bill OBrien (BOB) Producer of Deaf Wests Big River
Gwen Stewart (GS) Alice in Deaf Wests Big River
Ed Waterstreet (EW) Founding Artistic Director of Deaf West
Theatre

JC: I think it would be appropriate to begin by asking Ed [Waterstreet, former

artistic director of Deaf West] what made you want to do musicals for and
with the deaf?
EW: I come from a hearing family, I have four brothers and a sister, all of
them being hearing. And theyd always take me to church. Wed go for
Christmas Eve, and I always saw a choir singing. I was the only deaf person in
this huge hearing congregation. Everyone always looked like they were enjoy-
ing themselves. I would see their mouths moving along with the songs sing-
ing the lyrics, and I was so fascinated by it. They enjoyed it so much. In my
mind, I would hope that someday someone would kindly sign the songs to
me. It wasnt until I started Deaf West Theatre that I realized the ways that
sign language and music could coexist. But again, I always wanted not to hear,
but to see the music. I wanted to see it. Eventually it occurred to me that when

Figure 1: Jeff Calhoun introduces panel members (seated, from left) Steve Landau,
Bill OBrien, Linda Bove, Ed Waterstreet and Tyrone Giordano.

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 Deaf West Theatre and the Broadway musical

hearing people interpret the music into sign language, that it was like being
able to hear the music but through the eyes. That led into a curiosity that
propelled me to do musical theatre. When I got into music I realized I had to
learn quite a lot. Whoops. So much to learn. And Im glad I had the opportu-
nity to do a musical.
JC: But Ed, tell us about the very first time you decided, Were going to do a
musical at Deaf West. Where did you even begin?
EW: Well it really started before Big River. We started with Oliver!. Id been
looking for a musical that seemed to connect with that could connect with
deaf characters, not necessarily deaf characters, but characters that deaf and
hearing people could play. We are performing our craft in a hearing world,
after all. At the time, Oliver! felt like a perfect fit. He was an orphan, which I
thought was comparable to the experience of going to a deaf school that was
run by hearing people. So that was a good fit, and that was the reason we
picked that musical. So Bill OBrien, whom Ive worked with for quite a while,
said he already had a director in mind for any musical that I chose. When I
said I had decided on Oliver!, he told me that the director wouldnt be a right
fit. And he suggested Jeff. And I was like, Whos Jeff? Hes from New York,
he said, and Im like, Okay, well, does he know sign language? And he said,
No, no, not that great. And I said, Well just go for it.
JC: Okay.
EW: And then once I met Jeff for the first time I knew immediately that he
had just from his body language I knew right away that he was the one.
And during the very first rehearsal, I closed my eyes. There wasnt a point of
focus onstage. The hearing actors were talking on one side of the stage, the
deaf actors were on the other side, and my eyes were going all over the place.
And I said, This isnt working. We need to have our eyes on one signer (or
singer) onstage. We need to be focusing on one thing. Jeff understood and as
soon as we taught him what worked, he took his cues. And that was a huge
relief for me. There was a lot of discussion, heated debates between us.
JC: And red wine. (Laughter) Well thats a good segue into introducing you
to Bill OBrien, who used to work at Deaf West and is now at the NEA in
Washington, DC Bill, talk about your participation and how you helped,
getting Deaf West into the music business.
BOB: I guess theres two things that I might want to touch upon. One is that
my attraction to working with Deaf West initially was before musicals were
part of the conversation. Id done some work with deaf actors before and I
was really fascinated by what they could do. But I thought I was moving on
to other things, going into regional theatre and TV and stuff. I think it was
an audition for Romeo and Juliet that I couldnt do, but Ed grabbed me to grab
a quick bite to eat and basically interrogated me about the kind of work Id
done before and the kinds of things they could be doing. And the thing that
really struck me we could not have attracted Jeff to play in the sandbox if
Ed didnt have the same character trait that exploded out of that first conver-
sation. I think he really felt that he had the potential to do something that
nobody else could do and that this was something that had, really, the highest
artistic excellence at its core. I thought I had an interesting moment working
with deaf actors in Rochester and I thought I was done with that, but he sort
of convinced me that who knows what we might be able to find, what we

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might be able to do. And just the idea that I the best way to explain it is
if an audience member wanted to come to his theatre to feel good about, you
know, seeing happy deaf people onstage, he didnt want you in the theatre.
But if you wanted to crack open the human condition and learn something you
couldnt learn anywhere else, hes your guy. I was really excited about that,
and frightened. (Laughs). Especially when he said, Help me figure out how to
do a musical. He had already assembled a musical team that was starting to
look at Oliver!. I think there are two traits that led me to think of Jeff as the
person to help solve this problem. I just worked with Jeff at Sacramento Music
Circus, which is a stage thats in the round. I had done 600 performances
of the Will Rogers Follies. And anyone who has seen the show knows its
all about the stairs. And every one of those choreographed things that were
created by Tommy Tune and Jeff on Broadway were all about how you turn
a Ziegfeld Follies show into this big thing that has one set of stairs and look
at all the cool things you can do with it. In the round you cant do that. And
when I was hired to do Will Rogers in the round I was like, What? When I
got up there, I watched Jeff get up there not knowing what to do until he got
everybody together just solving this thing. There were two things I think I
learned about Jeff that I thought he was absolutely the perfect person to bring
into this. One was just his visual sense you saw it as he solved the sightline
problems here he created a more beautiful Will Rogers show than Ive ever
been in with no set just by using a new circular canvas and painting new
ways of doing some Busby Berkeley things that looked gorgeous, and thats
half of it. The other, bigger half is that he has a heart the size of the Grinch
at the end of that show that I think is what leads him to think about this stuff
because its beautiful and theres a human connection in the centre of it. And
I think he connected to the same kinds of things that Ed did in terms of when
you come into the theatre, what is it youre trying to do? Big River is a perfect
example of people walking out of the door thinking, What a piece of work
we all are. And unpacking that in lots of beautiful ways, beautiful moments,
but most importantly we learned an awful lot about who we are collectively
on the journey.

JC: I have to be honest, I dont know if you remember this, but after we did
Oliver!, the first time we experimented with this form, just to be clear here
heres the job for the actors: every hearing actor has to learn their dialogue in
sign language, so they have to sign and talk at the same time. And every deaf
actor has to learn how to sign to music that they cant hear. So overcoming
those challenges brings two cultures so closely bound together, I cant tell you
the love in just conquering those challenges that happened. Oliver! was so
hard, and I thought it was such a miracle that it was a hit, people loved it, and
we got good reviews. I really got out of town thinking we had gotten away
with something. (Laughter). Im not kidding, Im being completely candid.
And when they called the next year, I dont remember if you remember this,
and said theyre going to do another musical, I said no way. (Laughter) I said,
Are you crazy? We really got very lucky, lets move on. And they said were
going to do it with or without you. And I thought, oh, God, okay. And then
now its the ego that theyre appealing to. And I was brave enough to try it
again. I never knew how difficult it would be. And even if we did a show
tomorrow, whether it was Sleeping Beauty Wakes, or Pippin the other shows
weve done even if we started another show tomorrow, the night before
rehearsal I would want to throw up. And would not have the answers just

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because Ive done this before. The fun part about this its very difficult to
talk about the creative process. I think thats why shows like Project Runway
and these Top Chef shows are so exciting because its the closest we get to
watching the creative process, which is almost impossible to talk about. The
best way I can sum it up is its solving challenges as they come up. One page
at a time. I remember Oliver! starts with the first stage direction that theres
a knock at the door. So Im like (knocking on table), Ok, come in. And every-
ones looking at me like, Jeff, theyre deaf. And Im like (gestures like oops,
duh). And that was like the first, Oh shit. What do we do? (Laughter) And its
just solving a bunch of oh shits. There was no master plan, I wish I could say
I was smarter than that. Its just surrounding yourself with the right people,
being patient, keeping a sense of humour, and solving the problems one at a
time as they come up. I think this would be a good time to get a perspective
from the actors. Id like to start with Michael McElroy, well, everyone actu-
ally. What was the audition process like and was it any different than the
Broadway shows you had done up until this?
MM: Yes. (Laughter) There had been a lot of productions of Big River that
my agents had called me and asked me to go in on and I always said no. For
some reason I just didnt want to do this show. And, you know, yeah, thats
how I felt. And then this one came up and she was saying there were some
deaf actors and some hearing actors and I said, Okay, Ill go in. So I went in
the first time and I sang through the music and read through for Jeff and they
called me back. And I went in again. And they said, Okay, now you have to
learn some sign language. And were going to put you with Ty, Tyrone, who
had done the shows before two shows in Los Angeles. So I remember
this very clearly. I dont know if you remember this. We had Worlds Apart,
someone came in and taught me the sign language, and we came in and sat
on the floor with our backs against the wall, and it just clicked. We just had
this rapport and I thought, This is going to be interesting, and I thought,
Ok, Ill just sign the songs, say the lines, no big deal. Then I found when I
was cast that I would have to sign everything that I said and everything that
I would sing and then the panic set in. (Laughter) And then I there was
a guy Anthony who literally put everything I did on videotape that I said or
sang on the show. And I went away on vacation to Miami and would go to
the beach every morning and come back to my room and sit in front of that
VHS and try to learn all of the sign language. But it was an amazing audition
opportunity and experience because I never I did not know what I was
getting into on any level, but I knew it was going to be different and playing
this character Jim, which I never wanted to play, was going to be different
somehow, and it turned out to be one of the most incredible experiences that
Ive ever had.
JC: You can understand now how many hearing actors wouldve just not
come back. And those willing to accept the burden and the extra load is why
I think its a special experience because it just attracts very special people.
Speaking of special people, Michael [Arden], how about for you, the audition
process?
MA: The audition process for me was similar to Michaels experience. I also
sat on the floor with Tyrone, so I suppose he sits on the floor with anyone.
(Laughter).
TG: I guess youre right.

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

MA: I thought that was my special story (Laughter). It was exciting I had to
learn a bit of sign language with song and did that at the first audition. And
for the callback I was given the scene and I came into the room and they
said, Youll be doing the scene with Tyrone, and I said, How? And there
was an interpreter behind him standing off his shoulder and an interpreter
off my shoulder. And I realized in that moment that actually all we had to do
was communicate in the way that in that moment we could. Someone spoke
for me, signed for me and spoke for him. And I felt such a connection in that
moment and was so thrilled as soon as the audition was over that it didnt
really matter if I got the part because I had taken part in something even in
that brief few minutes that I think few people get the chance to do, which is to
not only communicate with someone in a different language that theyve yet
to learn but also to create, even for a brief moment, a work of art. And I have
strived to be back in that situation since.
JC: Wow. Gwen, when did you first sit on the floor with Ty?
GS: Unfortunately I didnt get to sit on the floor with Ty. I think I missed out.
(Laughter) It was a little different for me. The role of Alice, although it was an
amazing and powerful role, I didnt have a lot of speaking lines I I want
to start by saying I did the original Big River, not on Broadway, but I did the
first national tour, so I knew the show, loved the show, thought it was amaz-
ing, but when I got the call about this, I didnt understand how it would be
done. You know, to know a show so intimately and then say, Youre going to
do what? How? It seemed really interesting and wonderful, so I went in and I
was glad that my singing got me in the door. At that point I was like, I dont
really care what youre doing, I want to be a part of this, because it sounds like
its an amazing and wonderful experience. So I was just I was ready for
anything. I found the signing difficult initially. Because there was theres,
you know, I had to connect emotionally with the songs that I sing, but then I
had to add a third element, and for a while it was it was a weird disconnect.
But when it clicked, oh my God, it was just so amazing. And I was like, Okay,
Im in for the ride of my life.
JC: Yeah.
GS: The show was awesome and I thank you all again.
JC: Well, and thank you. And Ty, I remember very, very clearly your audition.
Do you?
TG: The first one?
JC: Yes. The whole process of you getting the role.
TG: Yes, prior to auditioning I was involved with the Deaf West summer
school training programme. When they offered me a place in the programme,
I was thrilled to be a part of it. At the end of the programme, I was in a dance
showcase for Jeff, for a swing-themed showcase, and that was really fun. And
after that I auditioned. And I think I picked something from one of the most
miserable plays ever, Long Days Journey into Night, for my audition. I guess
the point is I felt that I would be able to create a pictorial impression of the
scene with my signs. I dont think I actually finished my monologue. I just
EW: Well, when Jeff came to see you, Ty, at the dance showcase. I wanted
Jeff and I looked at each other and I thought to myself, I hope he casts Ty.

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And when you were onstage dancing, I looked at Jeff and he was pointing to
Ty and winking. I was relieved that Jeff and I were feeling the same vibe.
[]
(MM, MA and TG sing Muddy Water, giving the audience an opportunity to see
the process of signing/singing in action. MA stands to one side of the stage voicing
the song as TG signs the performance, both duetting with MM).
[]
JC: Just as we start to explore the creative process of that it takes a gener-
ous actor to stand in the dark, offstage left, and voice for Ty. Again, thats why
it takes it attracts there are actors who would not do that, and I think we
all know some of them. (Laughter) So where you place that person voicing so
he has direct sightlines to the deaf actor is really intricate. And you can imag-
ine, in the show they were on a raft, and how you have to keep Ty looking at
Michael as often as he possibly can. For instance, youll see in the next song
we do things like Michael will be tapping four taps on his leg hopefully the
upstage leg so the audience wont see it but thats what Ty is looking at
to get his cue. There are a lot of built-in secret codes that we try to do so the
audience cant figure out how were doing it. And someone thats very helpful
with that this is a great segue is our ASL master, the very strict and very
precise Linda. Linda could you talk a little bit about the (laugh).
LB: Yeah. Well. (Laughter) Really, way before the production, when we began
the process, my team I wasnt the sole ASL master, I had three or four
wonderful people working on my team, working on everything. About six or
seven months prior to the first day of rehearsal, our team got together. We
were composed of three deaf persons and one hearing person: we need to
have a hearing member of the ASL master team because of the music. I dont
hear: Im a hundred per cent, more than a hundred per cent deaf. So we had
a hearing ASL master who could hear and has a musical theatre background,
loves music and knew the play well. The team was wonderful, and it really
took three deaf persons and one hearing person, because we had eighteen
songs, if I remember correctly. Was it 22? Anyway the translation process I
dont know how detailed you want me to get, Jeff do you want me to go into
detail or to touch upon the process?
JC: Sure, go on.
LB: Okay. So its a complex process, and first we have to listen to the record-
ing. A person by the name of Betsy Ford, I just adore this woman, was a
fantastic person who was able to help us translate the English meaning into
ASL because again as Ed said, we have a deaf and hearing audience, and
we want them to be enjoying the same experience at the same time, to look at
each other and to smile. We dont want one half of the audience to laugh, and
the other half to feel left out. So, that meant at that point that we had to get
rid of the English word order in order to get to its meaning. This was very hard
for us because for those of us who are deaf, English was our second language,
ASL being the first. So the hearing member of our team read the English,
shared the actual meaning of each line in the song, and we were able to get
to the underlying concepts. At the same time, we need to retain the rhythm of
the music, and we want to be understood by both deaf and hearing audiences.
Its a challenge. Its a struggle over time. We created a script in writing, which

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is hard. You might ask how we do that. Thats another challenge. So we did
the initial ASL translation on video. Then we have our own written system,
we call it a notation, or a gloss, for lack of a better word. If you were to take
a look at the ASL glosses, you wouldnt understand it at all. And the actors
wouldnt understand it either. But it only mattered that the team understood
this gloss. And then after the roles were cast, we looked at who was signing
the songs and divided up the workload. Then we worked one on one with the
actors and they had to write their own notes on their own script, notes that
they would be able to understand on their own. We also had them review the
video translations that we made. So this was a real process over the course
of seven or eight months, just on the translations alone. You might think
that were just signing in English. No, its not that. They are two completely
different languages. English is audio based and ASL is visually based, and
you cant put them in sync with each other. If you were going from English
to Spanish, or English to French, the two spoken languages would go hand
in hand. But with ASL, there isnt a point of comparison that is easily made.
You can compare ASL, though, with other signed languages. Thats how we
see it. So, the challenge is how to bring English lyrics and their ASL transla-
tions together. There is colloquial ASL, signs that we use on a daily basis. But
we cant use those signs here. We have to take the signing to an artistic level.
ASL has its own rhythm, its own lyricism. It can be angular and flowing. It
is a visually exponential language. The signs that we selected arent used in
daily conversation, but they strike the heart of our deaf audience. I see it as
visual poetry. And it is an experience to be awed in your first language. And
the hearing audience is awed: they hear a familiar word and then see how the
word is signed. Their perception changes, and the language is elevated. We
really see this process as rewriting the whole song. We own this translation,
which is copyrighted and belongs to Deaf West.
BOB: With royalties by the way (Laughter).
LB: Right on. Yes. That is correct.
BOB: But the I think really if you try to unpack
LB: Thats right.
BOB: the phenomenon of this sign language theatre and sign language
musical, it really does rest on the translation process. Thats what really
compelled me from the beginning in terms of how this is not only inter-
esting in terms of doing things that nobody else can do, but in a way that
nobody else would have thought to do with such intent. So just to the
most intense kind of example is the one Linda was talking about. In terms of
how do you how do you translate something so a deaf person breaks into
sign in a way that a hearing person breaks into song. But they couldnt have
done that if Deaf West hadnt built this process so that, for example, how do
you translate the poetry of a Tennessee Williams play in a way thats going to
bring that same bunch of mysterious elements into play for the deaf audience.
And I think in this play, too, another really interesting challenge and oppor-
tunity was not just that you break into song but how does that language of
Twain you know, what I hear Twain, it sounds like Twain. And theres a
certain way that humour resonates in an earthy grounded way. It was cool to
think about in terms of Huckleberry Finn signing in an uneducated way, but
also with the humour of Twain, and I think all of the lines had it so the jokes

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had all the double entendres and all of that, thats the kind of thing that packs
into seven months of really hard work. You see it when you break into song,
but theres so much more nuance and detail that goes into it.
JC: And the nuance between having you can do accents in sign language,
which was new to me. In other words, the prince would sign differently than
the country folk. And so it was fascinating for me to watch that process. And
also I think creating the ASL was different when the music came in than for the
dialogue. We had a little more permission to be visually poetic. I know Ty was
very instrumental and had strong opinions about certain signs. (Laughter).
TG: Yes, Linda and I, we butted heads a lot.
LB: Yes, Ty and I had a lot of challenges in the translation process. Of course
we had the two other ASL masters working with me. We looked at the whys,
at how old he was (fifteen years), and how people spoke in this era, as Bill
said. And for example, Jim would say something differently in that era. We
looked at those things: the south, what the perception was, how the commu-
nication would take place. We were trying to convey to both audiences clearly
delineated characters and distinct perspectives of their lives. It all goes back to
that universal human experience that Jeff mentioned, looking inside of oneself
through the prism of sign language. It is not at all about making pretty sign
language, Im bored by that. We want to express the depth of the human
condition of these characters, and that required discussion with each of the
actors. Id give tools to the actors that they could use to incorporate with their
characters. I enjoyed that. There was so much humour, but it was also tough.
Id often come to Bill OBrien and ask, What does that sound like? What does
it mean when a hearing person says this? And hed explain it all in detail.
And after processing this information, I went back to the actors and wed try
different things until we figured out what worked. And we kept going from
day one until the last day, and we got better over time. Things got clearer as
the pieces came together. It was truly an amazing experience for me.
EW: I also want to let you know that this has been a new experience for a
deaf audience. Deaf audiences had never seen musical theatre presented like
this. In my lifetime, I had never seen anything like this, so this was a new
experience. Im sure that deaf people were thrown aback. But in the fifteen
years since we started doing musicals, I get comments like I want to see more
musicals. I want more of this. So its nice to see that our audience has become
sophisticated.
TG: Both deaf and hearing audiences appreciate how signing and music
come together.
BOB: I think theres a number of Disabilities Studies people here, just in
terms of the culture of that. Thats an interesting issue, actually, for Linda
and Ed to talk about in terms of it being a hard decision for some people to
accept right away, in terms of are we creating a zoo situation where hearing
people are coming in and looking at sign language in sort of a weird way?
And, you know, sign language theatre is our theatre. How are we giving that
up? I remember, as a hearing producer of the first musical, trying to navigate
that. It could not have been done if Ed wasnt at the centre of it. But just in
terms of what those cultural sensitivities were and bringing deaf for the deaf
by the deaf into this more simulated thing, if either one of you want to chat
about that for a second?

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1. Gallaudet University EW: I would actually like to hear from a deaf person in the audience: they
in Washington DC is a
leading university for
would give a more honest perspective. Now, Ive seen deaf people perform
the deaf and hard of their own music before and they have an internal sense of rhythm. I am fasci-
hearing. nated by that. But in our case, our musical was different. We were incorporat-
ing innovative signs. It was a new experience. I would love to hear from the
deaf people in the audience.
JC: I think we can do that.
TG: I think the point is we made sure our ASL signing was very clear. We
placed emphasis on the way we conveyed the signing. Now, at Gallaudet1
theres a very distinctive beat that they use. Its very percussive and its easy to
customize signing to that rhythm. And then theres a free-form style of sing-
ing in ASL. And now you can choose to follow the rhythm, note by note, or be
loose with it. In this musical, we had to follow the music to the note. So that
was tough. We would have to give up some of the signs in ASL that we wanted
to use in order to preserve the rhythm. Sometimes we had to supplement the
songs with even more signs. ASL can be incredibly succinct in comparison with
spoken language, and vice versa. Each language has its own strengths and
weaknesses. And to grapple with the musical form, that was a real challenge.
EW: Linda is completely deaf, I can hear somewhat with my hearing aid and
so can Ty, so Linda, whats your perspective? She has a really good sense of
internal rhythm, which is amazing considering shes profoundly deaf.
LB: It requires a lot of practice, you know. Sometimes I will go off key and
then have to catch up. Its unnatural for us deaf actors because I didnt grow
up with music or sound. But if you have an internal rhythm I was just talk-
ing to Steve last night about this: not all of us have a sense of rhythm. Some
hearing people cannot dance (Laughter). Some people, they have two left feet!
And then generalizations are drawn: deaf people cant dance. But I happen to
have a sense of internal rhythm. I will dance on my own, for example. I took
dance classes in university and I have it. Others in my class didnt. The trick
is to keep up with the music. Always stay with it. Its challenging and fun.
Id like to go back to something. Translation is an art form. Deaf people
will tell me they didnt understand everything. But its a matter of making
them understand that its not about meaning but elevating it to an art form.
Words can be elevated into poetry, for example, into different ways of seeing.
And therefore language gets elevated. Then they get it. Here, we are following
the music while simultaneously elevating the language into an art form. And
maybe there are times when 100 per cent of what is said is not understood,
but thats true for our hearing audience members as well. You may not hear
every single word, for example. So the experience between our two audiences
becomes roughly equivalent. Were in this together.
JC: To Eds point, during the Q&A, if there are deaf audience members who
have a strong opinion about that, we would love to hear about that and that
would be a great time to do so. Steve, lets talk about things have to change,
inevitably. There were things written into Roger Millers score that we could
not do for various reasons, you want to address some of those?
SL: Sure. In the original production they used canons, or rounds, where sing-
ers, two different groups, would be singing the same words but at a different
time overlaying one another. Which is something that we do all the time in
music. And for some reason our ear can separate that and understand what

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 Deaf West Theatre and the Broadway musical

theyre saying, but as I learned when we first started rehearsals, working on

the opening number with (sings) Looka here, Huck! Looka here! one ontop
of the other, they said, Well, we cant sign that at the same time with the
English lyrics because it would be a visual confusion and no one would under-
stand what theyre saying. So we had to find a way to remove that, which
simplified the music quite a bit. But we discovered adding the ASL added so
much visual interest to it that we didnt miss it.
JC: Some day I would like to figure that out. I just havent been able to yet. Every
time I tried it looks like were not together. Yeah it just looks like mistakes.
SL: Well, I think we figured it out okay in the opening number of Pippin,
we were able to do that because we had Magic to do magic to do Ive
forgotten the sign for magic so that would happen from different actors
it would be magic here and here I think it was a simple enough phrase that
it didnt become such a confusing visual mess.
JC: I remember going back to where we were talking about the deaf and
the hearing, the reaction, the only negative thing I heard where a lot of the
deaf audiences were disappointed in the poor signing from the hearing actors
because it just takes a while. I imagine for them it was like a hearing person
going and hearing terrible singing (Laughter). So Linda was very strict about
rehearsals and trying to get the hearing actors to become as proficient as they
possibly could in the signing because I know it was hard for a lot of deaf audi-
ences, especially early on. Is that correct, Ed?
TG: Do you remember at the Taper the audience members filled out feed-
back forms and one lady wrote, Why are the actors moving their arms so
much? (Laughter).
JC: I remember its my second favourite Deaf West story. Theyre in the
audience and this was not at the Taper, but at the Broadway American
Airlines Theater and about three or four minutes into the show this couple
gets up and leaves, and Im pacing and sweating at the back of the house like
directors do in previews, and I follow them outside and I said, Excuse me,
Im the director of the show, is there something wrong? Why you are leav-
ing? And they looked at me with a straight face and said, Theres entirely too
much gesturing (Laughter). So, thats a nice lesson not to worry about every-
ones point of view, actually. Hey Ty, during Muddy Water, it was hard for
you at the beginning because it seemed like you were doing the same signs
over and over again. Do you remember that, would you talk about that?
TG: Thats a good point. I would talk with Bill a lot about repetitive lyrics,
which would normally dictate that we sign them over and over again. How
can we present it in a different way each time? In our discussion, Bill brought
up that the key changes with each time. So I took that, and I changed my
signs to be more robust and bigger in proportion to the key. I also had help-
ful discussions with people who didnt know any sign language. For exam-
ple, Michael and I worked on Pippin together. We discussed the translations.
And he would point out too that this line does not mean this, it means that.
That brought me to a new level of understanding, which in turn improved
my translation of that line. Even though Michael already knows some sign
language, a person can contribute to the translation process even if he or she
doesnt know any sign language. Everyone benefits from that interaction with
each other, hearing and deaf alike.

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

BOB: Thats another one of those things thats coming back to me. I was
voicing as Michael was, when we tried to figure this out initially.
JC: Bill was our original Mark Twain who voiced for Huck at Deaf West.
BOB: It really is that was another thing where you had to navigate, it
was another one of those for an actor, I think for all of the actors that get
involved with this, theres tons of Oh shit moments, because you cant just
decide for yourself to run with some new idea that youre improvising in the
moment because thats like a three-legged race, you know, trying to go Lets
hop, skip, and jump now. So thats a real challenge in the moment, in terms
of that you trust each other and youre creating the same moment. But the
opportunity, then, is it unpacks conversations that you dont normally force
yourself into like Ty was just describing in terms of what are we trying to do
right here at this speed, what are we trying to do? Initially, when Jeff says it
takes the right kind of actor, the wrong kind of actor would be, Why is my
impetus not driving the boat here? But it really turns into What is the collec-
tive storytelling that were doing here? and that becomes why were its
the unselfish instincts that you have to keep a hold of here.
JC: Its important that we are all on the same page because the tendency for
the hearing actor voicing is to impose his own instincts and thats not the job.
The job is to watch and carefully voice the instincts of the actor that youre
voicing for.
[]
(MM, MA and TG perform Worlds Apart).
[]
EW: When I first read Big River and I read the song Worlds Apart, I thought,
This is it. Its a song that describes the deaf and hearing worlds coming
together. Its a perfect sign.
JC: I was going to say the same thing, thats the perfect metaphor for the
whole thing and how I would answer the question brought up about mixing
these two cultures together. I dont think were trying to say there shouldnt
be deaf plays for deaf audiences or hearing musicals for hearing audiences.
My experience is when you mix the two cultures together it creates something
else that transcends, and for me its more of an experience than if you have
them on their own, and thats been my personal opinion.
MM: Jeff, I just wanted to say, that what was so great about the experience
of the show was that the characters really mirrored in terms of the runa-
way slave and this runaway kid and the hearing and the deaf there were
so many ways that they married together so well. I remember Jeffs working
with Linda, who was amazing to me, but I remember just in Worlds Apart
where therewas a time when I had to switch hands, because I had learned it
one way and when we got onstage, okay, now you have to do it on the other
side and it almost sent me into a panic (Laughter). Because as an actor, when
youre signing at the same time youre speaking, you cant follow your natural
instinct as you would from night to night in an eight show week. Everything
gets off because the signs match up and sometimes, like Linda said, the sign
youre signing is not the word youre saying. So it was a challenge because
you have to try to find a way to stay alive and make every night and every

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 Deaf West Theatre and the Broadway musical

Figure 2: Tyrone Giordano (Huck) and Michael McElroy (Jim) sing/sign Worlds
Apart; Michael Arden (not pictured) is voicing for Giordano from the side of the
stage.

moment new within parameters that were more confining, but turned out to
be more freeing because you could use two or three different languages to
communicate: the language of music, the language of lines, and the language
of sign. It was challenging. But I was determined to be as clear as possible and
to respect ASL and give it everything that I could so people could understand,
and in a way it transformed my experience as well.
JC: Which makes such sense because ASL is the only visual language we
have. So its innately choreographic. One of my favourite moments in that
song is when they came together, even though theyre worlds apart, it took
both of them to create the sign for sun. (Showing sign for sun). We could have
easily had each of them create their own sun (see Figure 2).
MM: It was, it was different at first. And that happened and
BOB: One of the things that I think is the perfect
LB: Going back to my earlier point about it being an art form. For example,
if you say I see that you have blue eyes with fingers coming from your eyes,
its coming from the first person. And when you shift the voice to the second
person, the fingers come from another set of eyes. Thats a device that is not
used in everyday conversation, and that is one of the things that can be done
to elevate the language. And we can all enjoy that together. Sometimes Ill
watch from the audience and think, How did I come up with that idea? It
was a collaborative effort amongst all of us and its the willingness to refine
ideas, to find the fun in the process, and to find visual and creative ways to say
things. That is the common goal that were going for.
TG: Its exciting, right now, how ASL is booming. People are taking ASL
classes now. Just imagine what would be possible if people who were musi-
cally talented and fluent signers were to come to Deaf West. Thats the future.
That would push the boundaries of this art form in new directions. Were
already pushing them. The wonderful cast here, thank you for kicking that
process off.

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

BOB: And I think you know, when you talk about the collaborative process,
it intensifies in just whats required of everybody onstage. I think what I loved
about this story for this company is it also is a collaboration with the audience
and the notion of the journey Huck and Jim are on, theres a parallel between
the audience and the company onstage. That thing thats happening here
[onstage] is kind of happening here [with the audience]. This is the brilliance
of Jeff, too. Its happening so that you dont even know youre on that jour-
ney. You cant earn that separation that made me cry when you left each other
without going through the journey first. The moment of the stark confron-
tation with the audience that theyre on the journey, too, when the music
all stopped. And suddenly theyre with this kid, they understand what hes
saying. Theyve never looked at sign language before, but theres nothing
theres no divide.
JC: Well, I was adamant, and Ed was too, we never wanted to make the deaf-
ness part of the politics, just part of the artistry. The rest of it was inevitable.
The subtext was there, there was nothing else to do that would be better than
just not talking about it, if that makes sense. The moment you know.
BOB: (chuckling) I just ruined that, I guess.
JC: Do you know the moment Bills talking about? Late in the second act,
where were singing Waiting for the Light and the ensemble is behind Huck,
Jim, youre being taken away, and Alice youre are you being taken away
that moment?
GS: I think so.
JC: Led away at the same time. And its the climax of the play. What we did is
we turned off your audio, but we continued the picture. It immediately made
every hearing person, I cant speak for the deaf audience, but it put every
hearing person in the shoes of a deaf person, and at that moment, in Hucks
shoes, at the climax of his journey. So it was so profound, that we felt what he
felt at that moment while we also had a life lesson. I can be candid about how
that moment happened. It was an accident. It was a director being observant.
I think directors and choreographers have to have 360 degrees vision and you
need to know whats going on at all times. It doesnt mean you will use some-
thing at that moment, but you do store it back in your brain. So we were on a
break at the Mark Taper Forum. And Steve was rehearsing the band upstage
left, everyone else was on a break, I was waiting for the lighting designer,
Michael Gilliam, to finish one of the lighting cues. Steven was rehearsing
Waiting For the Light and Im just sitting there bored to tears, just thinking
how Im going to use my time and hurry up, Michael on the lighting cue, and
all of a sudden Steven cut off like he would do in a music rehearsal. He cut off
the singers, but the deaf singers werent watching so they continued to sign.
And I was like, Whoa, this is beautiful. I didnt know where to put it, but I
knew it was beautiful and profound. The fact that there was an opportunity
to use that was a happy accident, but thats actually how that moment came
to be. Were going to show you that in a second when we do Waiting for the
Light, but I do want to ask Michael, as an actor, what was it like to take
to add another language? Michael Arden well, both Michaels, but we were
talking about this earlier, Michael, about acting in another language.
MA: Right. Its one thing to memorize your lines in English and try to figure
out your intention as an actor and convey not only the story but what you

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 Deaf West Theatre and the Broadway musical

want to communicate and get out of the person youre acting with, but when
you add this extra element of learning a language that I before we started I
knew not a single deaf person and one single sign of ASL. So it was a difficult
thing. So I could do it without speaking and signing was easier, or speaking
without signing was easy, but when I tried to put them together, I sounded
like [straining speech] this, and I would forget my lines, and it was very diffi-
cult. So it was a constant practice. But at a certain point my physicality began
to inform my language, if that makes sense. So I might be signing the sign for
decide, but saying will. But that helped me as an actor, knowing that will
meant I was making a decision, if that makes sense. So as an actor I was able
to make better choices and deepen those choices because of the help of this
new language. It was like I was speaking two different sets of texts at once
that informed each other. I had a sort of written subtext that only I knew,
or that the deaf audience was getting, and it enriched the performance. At a
certain point it fused together and at times the physicality and the ASL would
lead the English. Sometimes I would forget the English and my hands would
be flying.

JC: Michael, did you have anything to add to that?

MM: Well, one other thing, to preface it with, what was great about the expe-
rience, another thing that was great about it, is when you look this is kind
of an emotional time being up here because when youre in these moments,
youre not really thinking about what the effect is or how important it is or
how life changing it is. So to be able to go back now and look at what we did
together, and that experience, is very emotional I think for all of us. Because
were in such a unique time, and I was so terrified of learning the signs and
wanting to do a good job, I didnt think about it. I never told you this, but I
thought up through previews that I was going to get fired. I dont think why,
but I just knew I would be fired because I thought I thought I did not know
what I was doing. But I learned to eventually trust this connection because for
me it was such a struggle to put myself in that time. As an African-American
man in a period of time where you just didnt have any rights, and I never
wanted to play that role because I didnt want to be called the things he would
be called, and I didnt want to experience the scene before Worlds Apart, but
it was something about the sign language that transformed who Jim was, not
just for me, but for the audience. And that was actually the hardest part, but it
became the key for me to be able to go into who this guy was, who this man
was. And Jeff was so wonderful to me because I would ask questions and I
would say, I dont believe that. I dont want to do that yet because I dont
believe there was one moment when we were about to get on the raft and
it was written that Huck says, Lets go! and I said, I dont know if Im going
to put my life in this kids hands so easily (Laughter). And thats how I felt. I
wouldnt do it today (Laughter). So. You dont know, and so I brought this to
Jeff and he said, Okay, lets figure it out. And he gave me that one moment
to be able to look at him and make a decision, and it changed things. So
we found all those kinds of moments so I felt that the character had dignity,
which was important to me, and I felt the signing helped that. But Jeff was
open and available to helping me find my way through.

JC: One of the most rewarding parts for me was watching accomplished,
successful hearing actors becoming better actors through the use of ASL.
Youre forced Ed is the first deaf person I ever met until I came to Deaf

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

West, I had never met a deaf person before. And I was amazed at his energy.
He could say coffee and his whole face lit up, his eyes lit up, and I was
mesmerized by the energy it took for him to communicate to me and that
became it was sexy for me as a director (Laughter). I wasnt even trying to
be funny. It really becomes sexy to see the actors working that hard, becoming
better communicators, which is why I felt the audience felt that. Thats why
it felt different. The audiences were seeing something, we were seeing some-
thing, we were in a shared experience that had never been done before. I do
think we created a language a visual language that we havent seen before
in a musical and the audience knew it, the cast knew it, and it just became a
beautiful experience we were all aware it was happening as it was happen-
ing. I guess thats why even thirteen years later, anyone is still interested in
this, and Im proud to even be here after thirteen years. Those of you who
dont know Ed, I think through this discussion I hope you get a little taste
of why hes been instrumental in changing so many peoples lives. Theres
nobody like him. Ed, I love you and I cant thank you enough for this jour-
ney that youve created for so many of us. Its absolutely true. Before we go
on, youve met the Ed, he is retired. He lives in Arizona and just plays golf
every day (Laughter). But were going to introduce you to DJ [Kurs], who is the
current Artistic Director of Deaf West, and hes going to talk a bit about the
present and the beautiful future of Deaf West. DJ.
(Applause. JC hands DJ the microphone. Laughter.)
JC: The reason I did that: yesterday, Im not kidding you, I said, DJ, you
come up, Ill have my mic and hand it to you. When youre done, give it back
to me. And he just looked at me like Im an idiot and, of course, I was. So you
dont need this microphone. (Laughter).
DJ: Well, Ive come today to announce were going to be doing Big River Two
(Applause. Laughter). No. I think it would be a mistake to try to repeat the
tremendous success of Big River and I think we have to move on in different
and new ways, stepping forward and branching out. And one of the things we
are doing this fall is a production of Spring Awakening, the Broadway musical.
And were going to be opening that show in August. So hopefully youll sign
on to our website and our Facebook page and keep an eye out for when our
tickets go on sale, etc. And it will be directed by Michael Arden here. Did you
want to speak briefly about that?
MA: Yeah, were very excited to be starting this new journey on this new
and exciting musical. It did very well when it first opened on Broadway and
were excited to take it to an even more exciting place in this production. Its
ultimately a musical about people who are marginalized and their voices are
taken away. And were excited to explore it with an incredibly young and new
cast of actors and present it to you this summer so we hope to see you all
there.
DJ: And we also are trying new ways of working and one of the projects that
were working on is called The People of Sound and Silence. Its a brand new
project. Were writing the lyrics based on the sign language, which is going
to be the genesis of the lyrics. Its an original piece, which will be very, very
challenging, to create the lyrics rather than translating from English into ASL,
were doing the reverse. Its an interesting challenge for us to be starting from
the sign, so well see what happens with that piece as we go forward. I want

100
 Deaf West Theatre and the Broadway musical

Figure 3: Gwen Stewart (Alice), Tyrone Giordano (Huck) and Michael McElroy
(Jim) sing Im Waiting for the Light to Shine, joined by the UCLA singers.

to thank all of you for your support of Deaf West and I want to really thank
the panel for coming today. It means so much to all of us that you have come
from as far as you have, and I appreciate it and I want to thank you, each and
every one of you.
(Applause. TG, MM, MA and GS sing Im Waiting for the Light to Shine, joined
by the UCLA singers. The event ends with a short session of Q&A).

Suggested citation
Calhoun, J., Arden, M., Bove, L., Giordano, T., Kurs, D. J., Landau, S.,
McElroy, M., OBrien, B., Stewart, G. and Waterstreet, E. (2015), Deaf
West Theatre and the Broadway musical: Big River and beyond, Studies in
Musical Theatre 9: 1, pp. 85104, doi: 10.1386/smt.9.1.85_1

Contributor details
Jeff Calhoun is a director, choreographer, producer and dancer. He made
his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
(1982). Calhouns collaboration with Tommy Tune resulted in the 1991 Tony
Award for Best Choreography for The Will Rogers Follies. His Broadway direct-
ing debut was Tommy Tune Tonight! (1992). Calhoun began his associa-
tion with Deaf West Theatre in 2000 when he directed and choreographed
a world premiere adaptation of Oliver!. Calhoun continued his work with
Deaf West Theatre with Big River the following season, which subsequently
played Roundabout Theatre Companys American Airlines Theatre in 2003
on Broadway and garnered the 2004 Tony Award for Excellence in Theater.
Calhoun also directed the world premiere of the first original American Sign
Language musical, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, at the Kirk Douglas Theater in 2007.
In 2009, he directed and choreographed the Deaf West Theatre and Center
Theater Group production of Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum, which included
new and revised material from composer Stephen Schwartz. Calhouns addi-
tional Broadway credits include the first Broadway revival of Grease (1994),

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

Annie Get Your Gun (1999), Bells Are Ringing (2001), Brooklyn The Musical
(2004) and Grey Gardens (2006). Calhoun is an Associate Artist at Fords
Theater, Washington, DC where he directed both the 2008 Presidential Gala
presentation of Frank Wildhorns The Civil War, and a new production of that
same work as part of the Fords Theater 2009 reopening season. Calhouns
most recent success is Disneys Newsies, which boasts eight Tony Award nomi-
nations, including Best Musical and Best Director of a Musical for Calhoun.

Michael Arden is an actor, singer, composer and director, who made his
Broadway debut as Tom Sawyer in the 2003 Roundabout and Deaf West
revival of Big River. He also starred opposite John Hill in the 2004 off-Broad-
way show Bare. In summer 2005, he played Nick in Adam Bocks surreal play
Swimming in the Shallows at New Yorks Second Stage Theatre. He played the
title character in Pippin for the World AIDS Day Broadway benefit concert
in November 2004. He starred in the Twyla Tharp musical The Times They
Are A-Changin based on the music of Bob Dylan. In the summer of 2007 he
toured Europe with Barbra Streisand as one of her Broadway Boys. In 2010 he
played the lead role in a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webbers Aspects of Love at
the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. In 2014 he directed Spring Awakening
for Deaf West Theatre.

Linda Bove is a deaf American actress who played the part of Linda the
Librarian on the childrens television programme Sesame Street from 1971
to 2003, introducing thousands of children to sign language and issues
surrounding the deaf community. Bove appeared in an episode of Happy
Days as Allison, a deaf girlfriend of The Fonz. She also performed on the soap
opera Search for Tomorrow and some productions of the play, Children of a
Lesser God. With her role on Search for Tomorrow, she became one of the first
deaf actresses to become a regular on a soap opera series. She performed as
a member of the National Theater of the Deaf, founded in 1967. She received
an award in 1974 from AMITA, an Italian American womens organization, in
recognition for her work on television. She was ASL Master for Deaf Wests
revival of Big River.

Tyrone Giordano is a deaf American actor. An alumnus of Gallaudet University,

he began acting in Washington, DC in 1999. He played the lead in the critically
acclaimed Big River, which originated with Deaf West Theatre, in Los Angeles,
which also played at the Taper Forum, on Broadway, and in national tour (June
2004June 2005). In The Family Stone, he plays the gay deaf brother of lead
actor Dermot Mulroney. He also plays the deaf brother of Ashton Kutchers
character in the 2005 film A Lot like Love and can also be seen in 2008s
Untraceable starring Diane Lane. He was recently onstage as Pippin at the Mark
Taper Forum, and on film with Russell Crowe in The Next Three Days.

David J. Kurs is the artistic director of Deaf West Theatre. For Deaf West, he has
produced American Buffalo (2015), Spring Awakening (2014), Flowers for Algernon
(2013), and Cyrano (2012). Previously, Kurs served as Deaf Wests artistic asso-
ciate and was an associate producer and ASL master on Pinocchio (2011), My
Sister in This House (2010) and Children of a Lesser God (2009). He wrote and
produced the multimedia young audience show, Aesop Who? (2008). A graduate
of Gallaudet University, Kurs has worked as a freelance writer, producer, and
filmmaker. He is also been active in the local and national deaf community.

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 Deaf West Theatre and the Broadway musical

Steven Landau has written and arranged music for the Gay Mens Chorus
of Los Angeles, The South Coast Chorale, and Seattle Lesbian and Gay
Chorus. His arrangements have been performed by New York City Gay Mens
Chorus, Turtle Creek Chorale, Pittsburgh Mens Chorus and others. His piece
Generation Q: Surviving the Difference was commissioned by the Seattle Lesbian
and Gay Chorus, and performed by them at GALA Festival 2000. Recently,
another commissioned work Out! was presented by the South Coast Chorale
at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach, California. Steve was musical director
of the First National Tour of Titanic, and was musical director and arranger for
the critically acclaimed Deaf West Theatre production of Big River.

Michael McElroy is a musical theatre actor, singer, and music director. He

made his Broadway debut in Miss Saigon in 1991. He has since appeared on
Broadway in The Whos Tommy, High Rollers, Patti LuPone On Broadway, Rent,
The Wild Party and Next To Normal. In 2004 he was nominated for a Tony
Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Big River. He has also been
nominated for Drama Desk Awards for the original productions of Violet and
Big River. In 1999, McElroy became the founder and director of the Broadway
Inspirational Voices, a diverse, non-denominational gospel choir made up of
Broadway singers from such shows as Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Phantom of
the Opera and Motown. In 2004, Michael was nominated for a Grammy Award
for his original songs and arrangements on Broadway Inspirational Voices
holiday CD Great Joy: A Gospel Christmas. Broadway Inspirational Voices has
performed with Mariah Carey, Sting, Vanessa Williams, Elton John, Jason
Mraz, as well as on the CDs of Barbara Cook, Clay Aiken, and the Yeah
Yeah Yeahs. Michael is currently Head of Vocal Performance at New York
Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, where he teaches full time in the New
Studio on Broadway.

Bill OBrien is Senior Advisor for Program Innovation for the National
Endowment of the Arts. Among previous positions at the NEA, he served
as Director of Theater and Musical Theater, where he designed and directed
national leadership initiatives, promoted partnerships to advance the thea-
tre field, and managed the review process for theatre and musical theatre
applications. In 2007, he designed and initiated the NEA National New Play
Development programme administered by Arena Stage, which featured
the NEA Outstanding New American Play and Distinguished New Play
Development selections. Before joining the NEA, he served for seven years
as producing director and managing director for Deaf West Theatre where he
received a Tony and a Drama Desk nomination for producing the Broadway
sign language production of Big River, and received three Ovation Award
nominations for his work on the production of Big River at Deaf West (as
producer, sound designer and lead actor). Other productions he produced
for Deaf West include A Streetcar Named Desire (Ovation Award Best Play)
and Oliver! (Ovation Award Best Musical). He has appeared in Deaf West
productions of True West (Austin) and Big River (Backstage West Garland
Award for Lead Actor, Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Lead
Actor).

Gwen Stewart is an actor and singer. She made her Broadway debut as
Canibelle in Starmites (1989), and is best known for Rent (1996), where she
originated the role of Mrs Jefferson and the Seasons of Love soloist. Her other

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Jeff Calhoun | Michael Arden | Linda Bove ...

Broadway credits include Joanne in Rent, Truly Blessed, and Alice in the revival
of Big River. Stewart won the 2008 Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in
a Musical for her role as Sylvia in All Shook Up.

Ed Waterstreet is the founder and former artistic director of Deaf West

Theatre, which was established in 1991 as the first resident theatre company
in America operating under the direction of a deaf artistic director. During his
tenure, Deaf West Theatre established itself as a vital, contributing member
of the stage community both locally and nationally, producing 40 plays and
four musicals, including the 2001 staging of Big River, which went on to the
Mark Taper Forum and then to Broadway, receiving a Tony nomination for
best musical.

Jeff Calhoun, Michael Arden, Linda Bove, Tyrone Giordano, David J. Kurs,
Steven Landau, Michael McElroy, Bill OBrien, Gwen Stewart and Ed
Waterstreet have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was
submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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